University of the Pacific students work at Bloomberg terminals in Weber Hall to track financial markets and manage the Student Investment Fund portfolio. That fund, started in 2007, has climbed to $3 million.

University of the Pacific’s Student Investment Fund climbs to $3 million

Feb 19, 2015

An investment fund managed by University of the Pacific students that routinely outperforms Wall Street indicators reached a monumental benchmark of $3 million.

The Student Investment Fund portfolio - valued at roughly $2.5 million just a year ago - is managed by students in Pacific's Eberhardt School of Business and is one of the largest student-run funds in the western United States.

University of the Pacific students whomanage the Student Investment Funduse some of the same terminals used by Wall Street, thanks to Pacific Regents, alumnus DouglassEberhardt '59, and the Bankof Stockton.

The SIF hit $3 million for the first time in early October, but market fluctuations caused the fund to dip below that benchmark. The fund returned to the $3 million mark this month.

Since its inception in 2007 with a $1 million donation by Pacific alumnus and Bank of Stockton CEO and President Douglass M. Eberhardt, the return on the fund has been 63 percent. Since then, the Board of Regents has added to the fund by authorizing $1 million of the university's endowment to be managed by the students. The fund has returned to the university more than $300,000. It has been so successful that it spurred another alumnus, Larry Watts, to create for Morgan Stanley a fund modeled on SIF, making it the first commercialized student-run fund in the United States.

Eberhardt said the idea for the SIF was born from his own success managing the Bank of Stockton's investment portfolio, and he saw the tremendous learning potential managing such a fund could provide students.

"The fact that the Student Investment Fund has surpassed $3 million in such a short period of time is a tremendous testament to the instructors who have taught the course and the students who have embraced the learning opportunity," said Eberhardt, the philanthropist behind SIF. "The primary goal of the fund was to allow hands-on learning, with the goal of achieving success. With that success, we added a philanthropy component to teach the students to give back to the university. The concept is working quite well and I am extremely proud of the results."

SIF students learn how to carefully analyze potential investments using the same financial techniques as professional investors. Students also learn the finer points of portfolio management by taking responsibilities for individual S&P 500 sectors, such as health care, energy and commodities, and analyzing their fit within the greater portfolio.

They also use some of the very tools used by investment firms. The Pacific Board of Regents paid for a Bloomberg terminal for the trading room and, in 2012, Eberhardt and the Bank of Stockton donated the money to boost the number of the Bloomberg terminals to 12.